The popularization of photographic apparatuses such as a digital camera and the like (hereinafter also referred to as a “camera and the like”) allows the general public to shoot a lot of pictures, and laborsaving for organizing shot pictures and a function for automatically organizing the pictures are increasingly important. In general, a method is said to be effective among various methods for automatically organizing pictures. The method is intended for adding metadata to each picture, the metadata that indicates an attribute of the picture, and organizing each picture according to the added metadata.
Currently, various kinds of metadata which are standardized by specifications such as the EXIF and the like can be added to pictures shot by a camera and the like. Out of the various kinds of metadata, information on a location where pictures have been shot is useful, in particular, for organizing of the pictures. This is because, as can be expected that “where the pictures have been shot” is described to other people at first when the shot pictures are described, a shooting location provides highly significant information which represents the pictures.
In a conventional art, there is a camera which obtains position information of a shooting location through the GPS (Global Positioning System) when shooting pictures, and adds the position information to the pictures as metadata. Moreover, there is a system which: obtains a position of a camera and the like and the direction that the camera faces; estimates, in accordance with the values, the subject in a picture; obtains, from an electronic map, the name of the subject or the position information that indicates the location where the subject exists; and adds the position information as the metadata of the picture (See Patent reference 1, for example). Patent reference 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-203251
A landmark represents metadata as an aide for a photographer to organize pictures.
However, there are cases where it is not enough as a landmark for a picture just when: a name, of a nearby building, which is identified based on the position information on the shooting location of a picture, is selected as a landmark; and a landmark is selected based on a general criterion. This is because a degree of relevancy between a building and the like and the picture varies depending on each photographer, and an irrelevant classification could be made due to the use of a selected landmark. Moreover, even though a shooting location and a landmark could be of proximity to each other, when a photographer is not familiar, there are cases where no clues could be found upon searching a picture.
As an example of the above problem, there are cases where a photographer's knowledge of the neighborhood is involved. Consider a case where a still picture is shot at “the intersection on Ginza 4th street” in Chuo ward, Tokyo. At this moment, when an algorism selects a building near the shooting location as a landmark, “Ginza XX Building” is obtained as the landmark from a map. However, when the photographer is not familiar with the geography around Ginza, there are cases where “Yurakucho station”, which is farther than Ginza XX Building but more recognized as a public building, may well be selected as a landmark. This is an example that a landmark is selected only in accordance with the distance between a shooting location and a building; however, the selected landmark is difficult as a clue when a photographer is searching for a still picture.
As another example, there are cases where a photographer's movement history is involved. An ordinary restaurant and the like is unlikely to be a suitable landmark for a photographer, even though located very near a shooting location. However, in the case where the photographer has visited the restaurant, the restaurant can be a suitable landmark. This is an example that judgment only based on a general citation may result in selecting an unsuitable landmark as metadata for a still picture.
In view of the above problems, it is the object of the present invention to provide a picture data management apparatus and the like which is capable of appropriately selecting a landmark that can be a clue when organizing a picture shot by a digital camera and the like.